From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is the user sandbox of Malick78. A user sandbox is a subpage of the user's user page. It serves as a testing spot for the user and is not an encyclopedia article. For a sandbox of your own, create a user subpage. Or try other sandboxes: Main Sandbox | Tutorial Sandbox 1 | Tutorial Sandbox 2 | Tutorial Sandbox 3 | Tutorial Sandbox 4 | Tutorial Sandbox 5

Historiography of the Adams trial

The trial of Dr John Bodkin Adams, due to its controversial nature and outcome has inspired 5 books in total, due to the amount of prejudicial police evidence leaked to the press and Adams' eventual acquittal on one of two murder charges he was indicted for (the second was controversially dropped via a non prosequi.

Of the five books, two consider Adams innocent, two guilty of being a serial killer, and one that he was a 'mercenary mercy killer'. Four of the books were written prior to 2003 when the police files were opened to the public.

The following are presented in chronological order.

Contents 1 Books published during Adams' lifetime 1.1 Sybille Bedford 2 Books pulished after Adams' death 2.1 Percy Hoskins 2.2 Rodney Hallworth and Mark Williams 2.3 Patrick Devlin 3 PB killers 4 Refs 5 Historical viewpoint 5.1 Reduced version 6 Cats 7 Detective-superintendent Charles Hewett 8 Edward Clarke 9 Books 10 John Heritage 11 Nervous prostration 12 Perceived symptoms 13 Treatment 14 External links 15 Adams intro 15.1 Daily Express controversies 15.1.1 John Bodkin Adams 15.2 Dr Leonard Arthur 15.3 Dr Nigel Cox 15.4 Rupert Gwynne 15.5 Template 15.6 Refs

[edit] Books published during Adams' lifetime

[edit] Sybille Bedford

• Sybille Bedford, The Best We Can Do, 1958

Bedford's book reports the trial to which she was an eyewitness. She describes the events and the atmosphere but ventures little about whether Adams was guilty or not. Adams was still alive and libel laws restricted any speculation.

[edit] Books pulished after Adams' death

[edit] Percy Hoskins

• Percy Hoskins, Two men were acquitted: The trial and acquittal of Doctor John Bodkin Adams, 1983

Hopkins was the only journalist to back Adams' innocence during the trial. As a reward, Adams spent two weeks with him in hiding telling Hopkins his life story. Hopkins published after Adams' death. He viewed Adams as being innocent of murder but of being reckless and money-grubbing. He was particularly struck by Adams' cool demeanour during the police investigation and thought that Adams was too naive to comprehend the seriousness of his predicament. This view though is contradicted by facts uncovered by the police but which Hopkins new nothing about: Adams had approached potential witnesses to check what they might tell the police. He had also changed the license plate on a Rolls Royce he had inherited from Gertrude Hullett, for whose murder he was charged. He then sold the car 6 days before he was arrested.

[edit] Rodney Hallworth and Mark Williams

• Rodney Hallworth, Mark Williams, Where there's a will... The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams, 1983, Capstan Press, Jersey ISBN 0946797005

Hallworth and Williams were journalists. The former investigated Adams at the time of his trial while the latter helped later on. They viewed Adams as a serial killer and speculated that he was schizophrenic. They also had access to one of the investigating officers, Charles Hewitt, who provided behind-the-scene details of the investigation. This includes the conduct of the Attorney General, othzzzus, who was 'preoccupied' by other matters when he evaluated the evidence and took the fateful decision to prosecute Adams first on the Morrell charge rather than a more recent one.

[edit] Patrick Devlin

Patrick Devlin, Easing the passing: The trial of Doctor John Bodkin Adams, London, The Bodley Head, 1985 Devlin, the first British judge to write a book about a trial he had presided over, considered Adams a 'mercenary mercy killer'. Devlin gives many insights into the trial, especially which peices of evidence impressed him and the jury, and explains the motivation behind his summing up which was strongly weighted in Adams' favour. He also mentions actions by Rayner Goddard intended to aid Adams, though he knew nothing of Goddard's links to Adams' lover Roland Gwynne. Gwynne and Goddard had had lunch together during Adams' committal hearing.

His summing up

• Marshall Cavendish, Murder Casebook 40 Eastbourne's Doctor Death, 1990

• Pamela V. Cullen, "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9

• John Surtees, The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams: The Life and Murder Trial of Eastbourne's Infamous Doctor and the Views of Those Who Knew Him, 2000

[edit] PB killers

And, at the back of all their minds is the story of another member of the Brethren, Roger Panes. He had a nervous breakdown in 1974 after being ‘shut up’ and hacked his wife and children to death with an axe then hanged himself from the banisters in their home.

His suicide note, which read, ‘There’s never been such a wicked man in this house…Cry to God for mercy for you all and the dear children. The Lord is coming soon,’ is a chilling reminder of the depths to which man can be sent by religious fanaticism.

http://www.culthelp.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=218&Itemid=8

[edit] Refs

Sacco and Vanzetti

I was an admirer of Rodney Hallworth at the Mail, another genial, rotund chap, who foolishly allowed himself to be bought up by the Express. He thought that by joining the staff he would inherit Percy’s mantle. What the paper actually did was leave Rodney to wither on the vine so that Percy could carry on into old age without a serious rival. ^[1]

The doyen of the crime reporters was amiable, rotund Percy Hoskins, who could boast of a long friendship with his lookalike, Alfred Hitchcock, and with J Edgar Hoover, director of the FBI. Percy and Hitch once posed in Soho for a famous bookends picture. Percy kept open house for senior police officers at his flat at 55 Park Lane. He made a point of never having his own desk at the Express so that no tiresome executive could complain at the working hours he did or did not keep. In any case, he always enjoyed the warm embrace of his proprietor, Lord Beaverbrook. Percy knew where a great many skeletons were hidden in high places. If you were in trouble with the police, you rang Percy before your lawyer. Percy was a world-class fixer and the only crime reporter who never wavered from his lonely belief that Dr John Bodkin Adams was not guilty of bumping off the rich widows of Eastbourne who had mentioned him in their wills. “Easing the passing,” Adams called it. When Adams was acquitted, Lord Beaverbrook told Percy: “Two people were acquitted today.” Percy was somewhat embarrassed when Doctor Adams subsequently left him a small sum in his own will.

[edit] Historical viewpoint

Due to the publicity surrounding the trial and the wealth of Dr Adams, there has and continues to be speculation about the verdict of the trial. The general consensus is now that Adams was a serial killer who used drugs to influence his patients into leaving him their money before killing them.

Prior to Adams' death in 1983 there was little real speculation about the verdict but much innuendo. After his death a flurry of books were published. The first in 1983, "Two men were acquitted: The trial and acquittal of Doctor John Bodkin Adams", was by journalist Percy Hoskins, a close personal friend of Adams, and firmly defended him describing him as merely "avaricious" and "naive". The same year another, by journalists Rodney Hallworth and Mark Williams, "Where there's a will... The sensational life of Dr John Bodkin Adams", firmly argues that Adams was a serial killer and question the conduct of the Attorney General, Manningham-Buller.

The next year Devlin published his account of the trial, saying that while the verdict was correct based on evidence produced, Adams was most likely a "mercenary mercy killer". He also is heavily critical of Manningham-Buller.

In 2000, John Surtees, an Eastbourne pathologist and colleague of Adams published "The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams: The Life and Murder Trial of Eastbourne's Infamous Doctor and the Views of Those Who Knew Him". He sides with Adams: "Adams believed he was doing a kindness in easing the passing of the dying".^[2]

In 2003 historian Pamela V. Cullen obtained permission from Scotland Yard to access their papers on the case, originally closed till 2033. Her book "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", published in 2006, describes Adams as a serial killer who approached Harold Shipman's scale of killing and was motivated by both greed and religious reasons.

Adams has also been described as being in the small list of "psychopaths with medical degrees who have harmed countless numbers of people in defiance of their professional oaths" by the Association of Muslim Health Professionals.^[3] Herbert G Kinnell, writing in the British Medical Journal speculates that Adams "possibly provided the role model for Shipman" and could have killed up to 400^[4]

[edit] Reduced version

There has and continues to be speculation about the correctness of the verdict of the trial. After Adams' death, free from the strictures of libel laws, a flurry of books were published. 1983 saw the publication of "Two men were acquitted", by Daily Express journalist Percy Hoskins, a close personal friend of Adams, who defended him as being merely "naive" and "avaricious". The same year journalists Rodney Hallworth and Mark Williams published "Where there's a will...", arguing that Adams was indeed a serial killer and questioning the prosecution of the trial by Manningham-Buller. In 1984 judge Devlin published his account of the trial, saying that the verdict was correct based on evidence produced, but that Adams was most likely a "mercenary mercy killer". He was also heavily critical of Manningham-Buller's conduct. In 2000, John Surtees, an Eastbourne pathologist and colleague of Adams published "The Strange Case of Dr. Bodkin Adams". He takes a middle line, "Adams believed he was doing a kindness in easing the passing of the dying".^[5] In 2006 historian Pamela V. Cullen published "A Stranger in Blood", the first book to have access to Scotland Yard's archives. She describes Adams as a serial killer approaching Harold Shipman's scale of killing, motivated by greed and religious reasons.

Others have described Adams as being "in [the] small list of psychopaths with medical degrees who have harmed countless numbers of people in defiance of their professional oaths"^[6] while Herbert G Kinnell, writing in the British Medical Journal, more cautiously speculates that Adams "possibly provided the role model for Shipman" , perhaps having killed up to 400.^[7]

"But the body count notched up by all these killers pales into insignificance beside that widely attributed to Dr John Bodkin Adams. Echoing Shipman's activities, Bodkin Adams was acquitted in 1953 of the murder of an elderly widow in Eastbourne. But since his death evidence has emerged to suggest he may have helped up to 25 of his patients into their graves, after first influencing them to name him in their wills. "^[8]

[edit] Cats

Wikipedia:Neutral point of view#Undue weight:

"Wikipedia aims to present competing views in proportion to their representation among experts on the subject, or among the concerned parties. This applies not only to article text, but to images, external links, categories, and all other material as well."(My bolding of words.)

If the majority consider Adams to be guilty, it should be reflected in the category, should it not?

Sacco and Vanzetti

George Henry Lamson

Etienne Deschamps

[edit] Detective-superintendent Charles Hewett

In 1966 eight paintings were stolen; three by Rembrandt, three by Rubens and one each by Gerard Don and Adam Elesheimer. In total they were worth at the time about £4.5 million in total but a reward of just £1,000 was offered for their return. The paintings were recovered a few days later in an investigation led by Detective-superintendent Charles Hewett, who had previously investigated suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams. Michael Hall, an unemployed ambulance driver, was the only one of the thieves caught and was sentenced to 5 years in prison^[9].

[edit] Edward Clarke

Judge Edward Clarke, Q.C. was a British lawyer and judge.

As counsel ... As number two to Frederick Geoffrey Lawrence QC he helped defend suspected serial killer John Bodkin Adams. He was also instrumental in deciding the use of interpreters in judicial proceedings due to his arguments in R. v. Attard (1958) 43 Cr.App.R. 90^[10].

18 December 1981 His Honour Judge Edward Clarke, Q.C. has retired from the Circuit Bench on the South Eastern Circuit.

Judge Edward Clarke, Q.C. was called to the Bar by Lincoln's Inn in 1935. He served in the army from 1939-1946 and, in the last years of the War, sat as Judge Advocate in the 21st Army Group in Europe and later presided over several of the trials of war criminals. A distinguished criminal lawyer, he sat as Deputy Chairman of Hertfordshire Quarter Sessions from 1956 to 1963 and of London Quarter Sessions from 1963 to 1964. He took Silk in 1960. In 1964 Judge Clarke was appointed an Additional Judge of the Central Criminal Court (Old Bailey) (becoming a Circuit Judge in 1972 by virtue of the Courts Act 1971), where he has continued to sit throughout the past 17 years^[11].

As a judge he was rather sarcastic and intimidating to counsel^[12] His father was William Francis Clarke (1883-1961), Intelligence Officer^[13].

[edit] Books

The Life and Famous Cases of Sir Edward Clarke by Derek Walker-Smith and Edward Clarke (Eyre & Spottiswoode 1939)

[edit] John Heritage

Letter to Independent, 2001

[edit] Nervous prostration

Nervous prostration is an antiquated term used for a variety of disorders that would now be termed "mental exhaustion" or a "nervous breakdown". Extreme exhaustion from inability to control physical and mental activities

It was used in Britain at least up until the mid-20th century. JBA used it in 1949 for his diagnosis of a patient, Amy Ware.

[edit] Perceived symptoms

The main symptom of nervous prostration is a feeling of mental and physical exhaustion. The symptoms of nervous fever include: languor, debility, dejection of mind, alternate flushes of heat and chills, loathing of food, and confusion of ideas. These are succeeded by vertigo, pain in the head, cough, frequent weak and sometimes intermitting pulse. The patient talks wildly.

[edit] Treatment

Another website, [Colonial Diseases and Cures] lists treatments. They included purging, drinking wine whey and beef-tea, and ingesting sulphate of quinine.

[edit] External links

• [1]

[edit] Adams intro

John Bodkin Adams (January 21, 1899 – July 4, 1983) was an Irish-born British general practitioner and suspected serial killer.^[14] 165 patients have been identified as having died under suspicious circumstances while in his care.^[14] He was tried and acquitted for the murder of one patient in 1957, while another count of murder was withdrawn by the prosecution in what has been described as "an abuse of process".^[15] The conduct of the prosecution was widely criticised, causing questions to be asked in Parliament following the end of the trial. There is evidence that Attorney-General Sir Reginald Manningham-Buller, who prosecuted, intentionally mislaid evidence and gave evidence to the defence to aid Adams' case - in order to avoid a doctor being hanged at a politically sensitive time. The trial featured in headlines around the world^[16] and was described at the time as "one of the greatest murder trials of all time".^[17]

Adams was tried later in 1957 and found guilty of 13 offences of prescription fraud, lying on cremation forms, obstructing a police search and failing to keep a dangerous drugs register. He was removed from the Medical Register in 1957 and reinstated in 1961.

Scotland Yard's files on the case were initially closed to the public until 2033, but special permission was granted in 2003 to open them.^[14]

[edit] Daily Express controversies

[edit] John Bodkin Adams

Suspected serial killer Dr John Bodkin Adams was arrested in 1956 on suspicion of killing up to 400 of his wealthy patients in Eastbourne, England. The press, egged on by police leaks, unanimously declared Adams guilty except for Percy Hoskins, chief crime reporter for the Express. Hoskins was adamant that Adams was merely a naive doctor prosecuted by an overzealous detective, Herbert Hannam, who Hoskins disliked from previous cases. The Express, under Hoskins' direction, was therefore the only major paper to defend Adams, causing Lord Beaverbrook to frequently question Hoskins' stance on the matter. Adams was tried on one count of murder in 1957 and found not guilty (a second count was withdrawn controversially via a nolle prosequi). After the case a jubilant Beaverbrook phoned Hoskins and said: "Two people were acquitted today" - meaning Hoskins as well.

[edit] Dr Leonard Arthur

^[18]

[edit] Dr Nigel Cox

^[19]

[edit] Rupert Gwynne

He also took an interest in the case of General Reginald Dyer and vehemently defended for his actions in Amritsar Massacre, when ____ Indians were massacred. Gwynne said the event was not nearly as bad as Churchill's in Gallipoli.^[20][21] Constantly attacked Edwin Samuel Montagu. On July 8 1920 he said for example, "If he is Mr. Gandhi's friend he has not the right to be Secretary of State for India."^[21] This animosity towards him was partly because he was Jewish^[21].

A Unionist MP.^[22]

[edit] Template

[edit] Refs